Brylo: within two weeks we have reoriented the export of agricultural products

On April 6, the winners of the annual regional competition for achieving high performance in 2021 were honored at the House of Culture of Kobrin - the second "Dazhynki", as the chairman of the Brest Regional Executive Committee Yury Shuleiko aptly called the event. Dozens of the best foremen of the ITF and machine milking operators, veterinarians and livestock specialists, insemination operators and laboratory assistants, heads of district agricultural products received well-deserved awards. The journalists, in turn, took the opportunity to talk with the Minister of Agriculture and Food Igor Brylo and get what is called a first-hand commentary on the situation on the country's food market.

According to the minister, the republic has the best results in the post-Soviet space in terms of agricultural production. “Belarus is provided with almost all food products and has a certain independence from supplies from outside. We produce 828 kg of MILK per capita (this is one of the best indicators in the world) and 137 kg of MEAT. The level of self-sufficiency in milk is 256%, meat - 135%. says that we are completely closing our domestic market and exporting more than half of the milk produced. Our country has become not only a guarantor of its own food security, but also an export-oriented republic," said Igor Brylo.

Last year, Belarus exported food worth $6.7 billion. By the way, more than a quarter of this figure (26.5%) was provided by the Brest region. The HEAD of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food called the region strategically important for the country in terms of its EXPORT potential and agricultural production and expressed confidence that in the coming years the share of the Brest region will approach a third of the total food exports.

Meanwhile, under the conditions of external pressure, the question naturally arises: will the sanctions become an obstacle to the export flow? “We had a maximum of 116 countries in terms of exports. At the end of 2021, there are 112 countries where we export our products. I want to say that these sanctions did not affect our exports at all. We supplied dairy and meat products to Ukraine in the amount of a little over $ 100 million, exports to Europe amounted to almost $ 400 million. We literally within two weeks reoriented the market and began to supply products to where they are bought. And first of all, the Russian Federation, together with the countries of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union, take it. The second strategic partner for us became CHINA, the third place is occupied by Kazakhstan. That is, we have someone and where to sell. Plus, we are opening new markets, expanding our presence where we already work,” the minister explained.

At the same time, he noted that it is planned to increase the export of food products, of course, not to the detriment of the domestic market and the interests of Belarusians. “The task is to increase milk production by almost 2 million tons over the five-year period and, accordingly, export it. You see the situation in the whole world. In fact, there are a lot of countries with a population of tens to hundreds of millions of people where there is no food in full "Therefore, we are working every day to increase the export component, diversify markets. This is the Klondike, the foreign exchange earnings that should come to the country from the agro-industrial complex. But first of all, providing our population with food," Igor Brylo noted.

There are enough reserves in the agro-industrial complex to solve the tasks set, according to the head of the department. Every year, dozens of livestock facilities in all sectors are commissioned in the country: dairy farms, pig breeding complexes are being built, poultry farms are being modernized. The plans for this year include the construction of about fifty new dairy farms. “We are slowly closing old farms, increasing milk production at new complexes. And, of course, there is a completely different economy, a completely different milk yield. And this is our strategy: through new, modernized production facilities, increase the output of the agricultural products that are in demand. And our meat and milk are in demand, and the Belarusian brand is known all over the world,” said Igor Brylo.

The conversation about the modernization and re-equipment of livestock complexes has again returned to the mainstream of the topic of sanctions pressure: how can this affect the introduction of advanced technologies at production facilities, equipping them with modern equipment? “A large percentage of technical support in the republic is of Belarusian production. Therefore, we focus on this. Yes, there are official sanctions. But unofficially (I know, because we communicate with partners with whom we cooperate) people want to work with us, they try to then to overcome these obstacles.After all, any businessman from a European country wants to work, feed his family and do business.I think that sooner or later a calm scheme will be drawn up for further work on the supply of some missing spare parts, equipment, and so on.Let's build this work ", the minister concluded.

BELTA.